Are ITM TT levers OK with caliper brakes?

OK, this may well be a stupid question but I recently bought some of these thinking that I'd just install them in my nice new bullhorns and use them with my old road calipers on my SS. But having tried them tonight, they don't seem to pull far enough for the brakes to bite.
Now, when installing brakes, are you supposed to take a pair of pliers and pull the brake cable down before you fix it to the caliper? Or are they designed for some sort of specialised short pull caliper?
Thanks.

They should be fine for caliper brakes. A fourth hand tool (below) is pretty handy for brakes. Also, you want your brake pads to be surprisingly close to your wheel's rim.

it shouldn't be too hard to set them up. set the cable adjust so you can loosen the calipers a bit afterwards, squeeze the calipers hard on the rims with one hand, pull the cable through as tight as you can with pliers, drop the pliers and tighten the cable grip. let go and if you're lucky it'll be close to
perfect. oh yes, step 0: make sure your rims are true!

Ooh_Gravy OK, this may well be a stupid question but I recently bought some of these thinking that I'd just install them in my nice new bullhorns and use them with my old road calipers on my SS. But having tried them tonight, they don't seem to pull far enough for the brakes to bite.
Now, when installing brakes, are you supposed to take a pair of pliers and pull the brake cable down before you fix it to the caliper? Or are they designed for some sort of specialised short pull caliper?
Thanks.

I have these on my SS with very old brake calipers and they work just fine. The cables should be pulled tight before you tape the outer cable to the handlebars, otherwise they feel a bit mushy.

Thanks for the help guys, two things stand out. I wasn't clamping the calipers to the rims before attaching the cable so obviously they were so far from the rim that they had no chance of mating. Secondly, I think I've got a problem with the calipers themselves as they don't seem to return to their neutral position very easily. I think the return spring has too much friction because the little plastic grommet has disintegrated. Can I just lube her up (hey hey)? Or do I need to try and find a replacement?

Depending on the brake (i'm not paying attention) you can bend the return springs out, ie. increase the return tension. This used to help my V brakes.

Try the return of the brakes without the cables connected. That will tell you if it's a problem with the caliper or with cable drag. I had a problem that I thought was the caliper. However, taking the cable off revealed the caliper was fine and that the inner brake cable had corroded within the outer and didn't move easily...

Thanks stonster. It might actually be a problem with both. I bought a new set of cables today so will have another go tonight. The outer cable also wasn't tight to the handlebar and could also have been a problem. At least I've got a better idea of the problems to make a better attempt at it tonight. Thanks.

Thanks for all the suggestions guys. I spent last night doing my first brake/bar tape install and I have to say it was one of the most annoying and frustrating experiences I've had in a while! Trying to get the tape to hold the first few turns while you push the TT levers in the end of your bars and then trying to get the outer cable to meet flush with the levers.....arrrrgh....and then trying to feed through the inner cable and have it snag and start to unravel.....arrrgh.....one of my levers had a crash course in flying across my living room at one stage! :-)

But in the end I came out on top and I now have a fully functioning pair of brakes and a nice yellow taped Profile Airwing to keep my hands busy while riding. Excellent. Thanks for the help.

Ooh_Gravy But in the end I came out on top and I now have a fully functioning pair of brakes and a nice yellow taped Profile Airwing to keep my hands busy while riding. Excellent. Thanks for the help.

Yellow eh? It wasn't you who bought that yellow tape off Roberto yesterday was it?

btw i had an airwing on my last bike -- after a while I chopped the curvy-up bit at the ends and that made them just perfect (except for them being black..). With the brake lever that much closerer in, I could reach it even with my thumb just hooked over the tightest part of the curve.

natureboy [quote]Ooh_Gravy But in the end I came out on top and I now have a fully functioning pair of brakes and a nice yellow taped Profile Airwing to keep my hands busy while riding. Excellent. Thanks for the help.

Yellow eh? It wasn't you who bought that yellow tape off Roberto yesterday was it?

btw i had an airwing on my last bike -- after a while I chopped the curvy-up bit at the ends and that made them just perfect (except for them being black..). With the brake lever that much closerer in, I could reach it even with my thumb just hooked over the tightest part of the curve.[/quote]

Cos it's gonna make him feel good to know his lovely shiny newly taped handlebar is too long and he needs to do it again...

If Roberto is a spikey haired dude who works in Mikes Bikes in Cambridge...then yeah. Thanks for the advice on the airwing but I put my tape on sticky side down so can move my hands to reach the brake. :-)

stonster

Cos it's gonna make him feel good to know his lovely shiny newly taped handlebar is too long and he needs to do it again...

nah -- just use it till it goes black with filth -- my not-quite-the-right-yellow tape is already well on it's way -- then get the hacksaw out.

Ooh_Gravy If Roberto is a spikey haired dude who works in Mikes Bikes in Cambridge...then yeah.

I would guess not - I meant roberto on ebay who had some nice nastroitalia yellow tape, but somebody else obviously wanted it more than i did :-)